With rap music pulsating to the rhythm of jagged video edits, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins takes to TikTok.
Dressed in a suit, Collins does pushups with co-workers before the video quickly cuts to him appearing at other events and more pushups. At one point, he’s seen practicing his golf swing with his legs strapped down.
The approximately 30-second video, produced by the VA and posted to TikTok last month, is titled “SECVA reporting for duty.”
That same day, several other Cabinet-level agencies launched TikTok campaigns after the Justice Department deemed the app safe for federal employees to use.
The new campaigns appear to target younger generations that frequent TikTok, but some of the videos have drawn criticism over the Trump administration’s priorities. Many of the posts featuring Cabinet members — a decidedly middle-aged group — also have provided predictable fodder for late-night comedy writers. “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon mused: “Right now TikTok is, like, ‘Oh, no, are we the new Facebook?’”
Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that the administration “is transforming how Americans interact with their government by publishing engaging social media content and meeting people where they are — including on TikTok.”
Some videos are catchy and convey a message, like one posted by the Department of the Interior, warning parkgoers about “hot and bothered” bison during the animal’s breeding season. It shows a bison rolling around in the grass as Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” plays.
A video from the Small Business Administration features “Jimothy,” a raccoon with a spinal condition who has gone viral on social media, to promote shopping locally.
While that video hasn’t had much engagement, with fewer than 100 likes, a post from SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler got a lot more attention as she was roasted for walking jerkily through the agency’s hallways with an empty binder.
A video from the Treasury Department features Secretary Scott Bessent taking part in a common TikTok trend to the Nicki Minaj song “Beez in the Trap.” This time, however, the secretary is standing back-to-back with Minaj herself, supporter of President Donald Trump, as she sings: “Bitches say sh*t and they ain’t sayin’ nothin’. A hundred mother f**kers can’t tell me nothin’.” That post has nearly 70,000 likes.
On Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s page, he has lightning shooting out of his glowing eyes in one video. The rapid-fire sequence of visuals that follow include Rocky Balboa, Muhammad Ali, gymnasts, body builders and Kennedy himself doing pull-ups with a title that says, “America after becoming healthy again.”
Some TikTok content is more squarely about the government agency that’s posting it.
The Department of Transportation has posted nearly 40 TikTok videos since the campaign’s launch, including one seeking to recruit air traffic controllers from the gaming community. The slickly produced video has 4,600 likes and is aimed at a key agency priority — increasing staffing at the nation’s air traffic control towers.
But Collins’ video, which has more than 1,000 likes, has sparked some criticism both for its focus on the VA secretary himself and for the expletive-filled lyrics heard during the video.
“Roll that a** round and round like a motherf**kng wheel.”
“Shake that sh*t, this ain’t no motherf**king drill!”
The lyrics are from the 2003 song “Salt Shaker” by the Ying Yang Twins.
The video, while meant to promote the secretary’s work, has prompted a lot of water-cooler talk — not all positive, according to three sources inside the agency who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“We’re embarrassed,” said one high-level source.
Douglas Massey, a longtime attorney with the VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals and president of the local chapter of the union that represents about 320,000 VA workers, sent an email to Collins and three of his top aides denouncing the video. Massey’s branch of American Federation of Government Employees represents employees at the VA’s headquarters in Washington.
The TikTok video “appears to represent a shift away from Veteran-centered communications and toward promoting the public profile of the Secretary,” Massey wrote in the email, which he shared with CNN.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs exists to serve Veterans. Its communications should help Veterans understand and access the benefits, health care, and services they have earned. Instead, this video appeared to place the focus on the Secretary rather than on Veterans or the information they need,” he continued.
The union reposted Collins’ video on YouTube, calling it his “sizzle reel” and adding this message at the end: “The VA’s mission is to serve veterans. Not build personal brands.”
Massey and the high-level VA source told CNN that until earlier this year, the department’s social media arm focused most of its social media posts on guiding veterans to where they could get healthcare and benefits.
But recently, they said, the posts and videos are focused more on Collins.
The VA source said that much of the information on suicide prevention and mental health for veterans, previously a staple of the agency’s social media outreach, has been drastically reduced.
In his email to Collins, Massey also criticized the secretary, who is a former Air Force chaplain and civilian pastor, for being featured in a video with such bawdy lyrics.
“Frankly, as a conservative Southern Baptist pastor, I was surprised that an official VA video was paired with a song containing explicit sexual content,” Massey wrote.
In an email to CNN, VA press secretary Quinn Slaven said: “The post simply shows Sec. Collins performing two of the most important aspects of his job — listening to the concerns of Veterans and VA employees. What’s more, VA’s use of TikTok and other emerging forms of media has helped the department recruit more than 225,000 new VA health care enrollees in 2026 alone.”
Slaven also denied that VA has scaled back its social media outreach that addresses suicide prevention and mental health.
Kelly, the White House spokesperson, defended Collins from the union’s criticism, calling it “a ridiculously out-of-touch comment by an organization that must be decades behind the times.”
Trump recently claimed that he’s “number one” on TikTok “by far,” but in terms of both followers and likes, he’s not among the top accounts, according to the site Social Blade, which compiles publicly available information.
Trump’s Department of Justice and the Office of Management and Budget worked to rescind a ban preventing TikTok from being downloaded on government devices, following the sale of the US version of the app to a US-approved owner.
